What freedoms does France have that we don’t?

[YourHangryQuail]

Just coming off of the banned baby name thread and seeing that in France they have an approved names list.

I’ve also read on here before about swimming trunks being banned at the pool.

Mumsnet threads seem to say that France has a lot more freedoms than the UK but I’m struggling to see what.

Yea interesting, I take your point but from what I read at the time I got the impression it was French nationals. I might be wrong. To be clear, I certainly don't "expect" anything. That was rather my point.

I lived in Paris for a while some years ago, and to this day I say you've never experienced bureaucracy until you've tried to get a library card as a non-native French resident.

However, their employment rights blow the UK out of the water and the French health system is superb.

Also loads of public holidays.

It's no higher than where I live and people have had washing machines in bathrooms for a long time.

I thought the shorts in pool was because people had stuff in their pockets which got into the pool - going back several decades here to when many had a lighter and packet of fags.

The freedom to get lovely fresh local produce, to eat out at half the price of the UK and cheap wine, plus a lot more sunshine. That goes quite a long way for most people.

You probably also need to adjust for the number of tourists per year, I live near a lake and I can't remember the last time a local drowned in it.

A fairer comparison would be to compare the number of drownings to the number of times people swim each year and considering the price of UK swimming pools and out lack of swimming spots, I'd say the numbers are extremely low in France especially given the lack of lifeguards. I think our aversion to risk is actually making activities more risky as they are done less often.

Within the last 18 months dh has had to buy a pair of budgie smugglers at the pool shop!